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EDC Team Designs Winning App

An EDC team's app took first place in the category "Social Tools that Enable Literacy" at the May 9 "Hacking for a Better Web" DML5 (Digital Media and Learning) Competition. Designed by EDC researchers Jim Diamond, John Parris, Francisco Cervantes, and Tim Reitzes, with colleague Leah Potter of the American Social History Project at CUNY, the winning app, Congregate NYC, allows users to learn about and vote on important issues, such as gun control.

Sponsored by Facebook, MacArthur Foundation, the Family Online Safety Institute, and Mozilla, the goal of the day-long "Hackathon" is to find new ways to create a more equitable, social, and participatory Internet. During the Hackathon, teams work to develop apps, such as Congregate NYC—as well as badges, curricula, and other prototypes—especially targeted to "make young people’s online experiences more civil, more empowering and more firmly under their own control."